n from the
stimulant of his thoughts, his nerves overtaxed by the evening, jangled
discordantly, and he crept into bed, feeling an unutterable depression
as though the room, was filled with evil, threatening spirits.

XIII

In coincidence the two men, Mortimer and Crane, had similar thoughts
the day after Mr. Dolman's discussion; and, rather remarkably,
their deductions were alike, having the same subject of mental
retrospect--Allis Porter.

It was evident that outside of her family little interested her but
horses; certainly not a very lofty aspiration. When the conversation had
dealt with broad principles, men and their shortcomings, the previous
evening, she had centralized it in Lauzanne, picturing him as symbolical
of good acts and evil repute. Patently it was difficult to become
interested in such a young woman; actually she monopolized their
thoughts. Inconsistently the fair offender felt no recoil of this
somewhat distressing situation; her mind busied itself chiefly over the
reclamation of Lauzanne.

By inheritance all the qualities of a good horse had come to him except
a submissive temper. Allis worked on the theory that his disposition
had been set awry by injudicious handling; that unlimited patience would
cause him to forget all that. He could gallop, else he had not won the
race in which he beat The Dutchman. That he had needed a stimulant that
day was because he had been soured and would not try with his wits about
him. From the time of coming back to Ringwood Allis had ridden him in
all his exercise gallops, and had asked Mike personally to supervise his
stable education. It had taken all her great patience, all her youthful
enthusiasm and faith, for the Chestnut had notions beyond all belief. At
first, missing the abuse, he almost seemed to thirst for it; tried the
gentle girl in every way--sulked, and loafed, and took little streaks of
trying to cut the course, and made false breaks as though he were going
to run with a full vigor; even laid hold of the horses with his teeth
when opportunity offered. These antics did not break the girl's faith;
she rode him with the gentle hand a woman knows and a horse soon learns
to appreciate, and gave him to understand that he was to have fair
treatment.

Porter viewed this continuous performance with silent skepticism. He did
not abuse horses himself, neither did he put up with too much nonsense
from them. To him they were like children, needing a l